The media portray an outdated image of women and spending.
Photograph: Alamy

As campaigners continue to battle the gender pay gap, new research has shown huge discrepancies in the way men and women are spoken to about money in the media.

Linguistic analysis of about 300 finance articles from the UK and other countries over the past year showed that 65% of those aimed at women defined them as “splurgers”, excessive spenders with poor judgment who needed to “rein in” their spending and “limit” their outgoings in order to save.

When the reader was female, the landscape of financial planning tended to be painted as complex and threatening, “a minefield”, and imagery tended to be of women who were emotionally or even physically overwhelmed – cowering beneath an oversized credit card, for example – and often included infantile imagery such as piggy banks and pennies. A third of articles also assumed women to be responsible for family support and care.

By contrast, articles aimed at men painted their readers as savvy financiers and the financial landscape as packed with opportunity. Rather than “saving pennies”, male-directed articles talked of portfolios, calculated risk, and rely heavily on stereotypes of aspirations to combat, strength and power. They also heavily implied that the reader was competitive, with matey phrases such as “having a punt” or “playing the game”.

When it came to luxury goods, while a woman might “splurge” on a pair of expensive shoes, a man was more likely to “invest” in a suit. Articles also tended to link money with masculinity – 70% of articles on money in men’s magazines made it clear that financial success enhanced their status as a man, and half of articles aimed at men used fear to encourage big purchases and investment decisions.

Women also tended to be talked about in demeaning terms, as unreliable, high-maintenance and risky (“If you’re getting divorced, we’re sorry she betrayed you”). Imagery tended towards that of “money porn” – shiny objects of aspiration such as cars, yachts, large properties, or gold bars.

Where men were used in imagery, it was typically “a suited (tanned) young white male leaning casually, smiling to camera, with an air of smug accomplishment”.

Anne Boden, the founder and chief executive of new challenger bank Starling Bank, which carried out the research, says, “It’s everyday sexism. If women are constantly talked about as either scrimping and saving or managing the pennies to make things go further, that’s what you get reinforced to think money’s all about. And of course if you’re a man you’re having different sorts of conversations; you’re prepared to demand more, and not see money as something you have to beg for, but something you have a right to.”

One might argue that because of societal norms, the media reflects the different ways men and women regard money. But according to the financial adviser and co-founder of Savings Champion, Anna Bowes, this isn’t the reality.

“I think it’s a very outdated viewpoint, of men being the providers and women being the spenders,” she says. “The reality is just not like that these days. Men and women both go to work. From our experience women are very careful and are just as interested in finding out about the best savings accounts and how to make their money work as hard as possible.”

The newly launched campaign #MakeMoneyEqual (funded by Starling) is a call to editors, business owners and broadcasters to talk about money in the same way to everyone. “We believe that financial inequality doesn’t start with the pay gap or tokenism; it starts with how men and women are taught about money, and the way they are spoken to by the media,” says Boden.

The author, broadcaster and #MakeMoneyEqual ambassador Emma Gannon says: “Men shouldn’t have to suffer under huge money pressures of ‘being a man’ and women shouldn’t be spoken to like they are naturally bad or inept with money. The research shows how deep-rooted these assumptions still are and how they are being subtly perpetuated in the media. I’m hoping that the media think twice before publishing content around money, and don’t fall into the trap of targeting men and women in these ‘traditional’ ways.”